Their Gift From Ben

With Food For Poor, Parents Honor Boy Who Died In Crash

May 22, 2002|By MATHEW PAUST Daily Press

JAMES CITY — The father and stepmother of a teen-ager killed in a December crash quietly took over deliveries of donated food to about 200 families in the Williamsburg area last week, after St. Bede Catholic Church dropped the service.

Heather and Everette "Thumper" Newman started their food ministry, "A Gift From Ben," in February to honor 14-year-old Benjamin Hale Newman, who died in the Dec. 26 crash at Monticello Avenue and Centerville Road that took two other lives.

Acknowledging that they're still mourning, the couple stress that they're in this for the long haul.

"Whatever Ben had to pass on to the future can now only be accomplished by us, working in his behalf. I tell myself this every day," Thumper Newman said. He spends about four hours every day, seven days a week, collecting and delivering donated food in the community.

The couple started volunteering with the St. Bede food ministry after Ben's death. A month later, they started their own food ministry.

"We were extremely impressed with the volume of food that they obtained and the number of people benefiting from their hard work," the Newmans said of the St. Bede ministry in a May 18 letter to the United Way of Greater Williamsburg. "This experience, along with the passing of our son, inspired us to pursue additional food donations to supplement what St. Bede's clients were already receiving."

United Way Executive Director Sharon Cornelius said Tuesday that she was delighted to learn of the Newmans' efforts. She's invited charitable food providers, including the Newmans, to meet Thursday to coordinate various food-distribution services for the needy.

Cornelius called the meeting after St. Bede discontinued its deliveries May 13. St. Bede spokeswoman Miriam Saguto said the food program had outgrown the church's ability to manage it.

Heather Newman said Monday that she and her husband, working seven days a week, were delivering food to about 120 families when they learned that St. Bede was discontinuing its deliveries.

"A lot of ours was overlap with St. Bede's. But we picked up most of the rest of theirs the day after they stopped delivering. I'd say we're reaching about 90 percent of their families. There's one senior center and one family we haven't been able to contact," she said.

Thumper Newman said the couple's ministry -- with help from his mother and two employees of his marketing firm, King's Creek Plantation -- delivered more than 5,000 pounds of food last week, the first week that it took over St. Bede's routes. He said the ministry delivers food to about 600 individuals weekly.

A Gift From Ben, a nonprofit corporation, is affiliated with America's Second Harvest as a member of Foodbank of the Virginia Peninsula. This relationship with the nation's largest food-rescue organization is an advantage when seeking donations, said Claire McQuade, who founded St. Bede's food ministry about 10 years ago. Some of the large grocery chains won't give food to anyone who's not affiliated with Second Harvest, she said.

McQuade also said, "I believe a businessperson like Mr. Newman, because of the complexity of running a food ministry, needs to be in charge."

Thumper Newman said he picks up donated food from Ukrop's, The Fresh Market and three area Food Lions and takes the food to neighborhood drop-off points, where volunteer groups then distribute it to individuals and families. He said he delivers directly to about 150 homes and to several organizations that operate bread lines.

The Newmans have converted a three-car garage at their home on Governor's Landing Road into a pantry filled with freezers and refrigerators. Evenings and mornings, Thumper and his mother box groceries in the garage. Heather does the books and schedules deliveries.

Heather Newman works full time as a school psychologist with the Hampton school system, so her time with the food ministry is limited to after-school hours and weekends.

In their letter to the United Way, the Newmans made clear that they could handle more, if others might need A Gift From Ben.

"If your organization is aware of any others in the community who would benefit from our services," they wrote, "please let us know so that we can add them to our route."

Mathew Paust can be reached at 229-2854 or by e-mail at mpaust@dailypress.com